The Impact of the 1936 Corn Belt Drought on American Farmers' Adoption of Hybrid Corn

Sutch, Richard

doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226479903.003.0008

Cited by 24 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, large but temporary climate events, like the U.S. Dust Bowl, have had persistent multidecadal impacts on farm values (89). These findings contrast with historical narratives of farmer adaptability, such as the 200-year-long spread of agriculture into previously nonarable land (90,91) and adjustment of cultivars in response to drought (92). These two views of agriculture adaptability remain unreconciled, and identifying obstacles to adaptation, such as poor incentives (93) or high adaptation costs (88), are a critical area for future research.…”

Section: Economic Impacts: Agricultural Yieldscontrasting

confidence: 53%

Social and economic impacts of climate

Carleton

Hsiang

2016

Science

928

509

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BACKGROUND: For centuries, thinkers have considered whether and how climatic conditions influence the nature of societies and the performance of economies. A multidisciplinary renaissance of quantitative empirical research has begun to illuminate key linkages in the coupling of these complex natural and human systems, uncovering notable effects of climate on health, agriculture, economics, conflict, migration, and demographics.ADVANCES: Past scholars of climate-society interactions were limited to theorizing on the basis of anecdotal evidence; advances in computing, data availability, and study design now allow researchers to draw generalizable causal inferences tying climatic events to social outcomes. This endeavor has demonstrated that a range of climate factors have substantial influence on societies and economies, both past and present, with important implications for the future.Temperature, in particular, exerts remarkable influence over human systems at many social scales; heat induces mortality, has lasting impact on fetuses and infants, and incites aggression and violence while lowering human productivity. High temperatures also damage crops, inflate electricity demand, and may trigger population movements within and across national borders. Tropical cyclones cause mortality, damage assets, and reduce economic output for long periods. Precipitation extremes harm economies and populations predominately in agriculturally dependent settings. These effects are often quantitatively substantial; for example, we compute that temperature depresses current U.S. maize yields roughly 48%, warming trends since 1980 elevated conflict risk in Africa by 11%, and future warming may slow global economic growth rates by 0.28 percentage points year −1 . Much research aims to forecast impacts of future climate change, but we point out that society may also benefit from attending to ongoing impacts of climate in the present, because current climatic conditions impose economic and social burdens on populations today that rival in magnitude the projected end-ofcentury impacts of climate change. For instance, we calculate that current temperature climatologies slow global economic growth roughly 0.25 percentage points year −1 , comparable to the additional slowing of 0.28 percentage points year −1 projected from future warming. Both current and future losses can theoretically be avoided if populations adapt to fully insulate themselves from the climate-why this has not already occurred everywhere remains a critical open question. For example, clear patterns of adaptation in health impacts and in response to tropical cyclones contrast strongly with limited adaptation in agricultural and macroeconomic responses to temperature. Although some theories suggest these various levels of adaptation ought to be economically optimal, in the sense that costs of additional adaptive actions should exactly balance the benefits of avoided climate-related losses, there is no evidence that allows us to determine how closely observed "adaptation...

show abstract

Section: Economic Impacts: Agricultural Yieldscontrasting

confidence: 53%

Social and economic impacts of climate

Carleton

Hsiang

2016

Science

928

509

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Land values increase as periods of short-run rents are past and periods of long-run rents become more immediate. 15 Rearranging terms, the value of land at t = 0 is ( β Rosenzweig 1995;Sutch 2010). 16 Land values increase whenever adjustment costs are paid and fixed to the land; otherwise, the empirical predictions are similar when allowing for adjustment costs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Enduring Impact of the American Dust Bowl: Short- and Long-Run Adjustments to Environmental Catastrophe

Hornbeck¹

2012

American Economic Review

375

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The 1930s American Dust Bowl was an environmental catastrophe that greatly eroded sections of the Plains. The Dust Bowl is estimated to have immediately, substantially, and persistently reduced agricultural land values and revenues in more-eroded counties relative to less-eroded counties. During the Depression and through at least the 1950s, there was limited relative adjustment of farmland away from activities that became relatively less productive in more-eroded areas. Agricultural adjustments recovered less than 25 percent of the initial difference in agricultural costs for more-eroded counties. The economy adjusted predominantly through large relative population declines in more-eroded counties, both during the 1930s and through the 1950s. (JEL N32, N52, Q15, Q18, Q54)

show abstract

“…The tipping point for the industry came with a second major drought in 1936, the same year the new hybrid was introduced commercially. Even though hybrids were not clearly superior under normal growing conditions, in demonstrating an undeniable edge at averting complete crop failure, hybrids overcame farmers' resistance (see Sutch 2011). 482 RAMEY programs in financing farmers' equipment expenditures, thus saving implement dealers the cost and risk of carrying the notes (Clarke 2002, 197). The abundance of revenues in corn farming constituted a veritable feast for agribusinesses, and government programs provided a perfect recipe for financing their gluttony at taxpayers' expense through the ruse of supporting farmers.…”

Section: Technical Change and The Industrialization Of Agriculturementioning

confidence: 98%

Farm Subsidies and Technical Change: State-Mediated Accumulation in U.S. Agriculture

Ramey¹

2014

Rethinking Marxism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Impact of the 1936 Corn Belt Drought on American Farmers' Adoption of Hybrid Corn

Cited by 24 publications

References 26 publications

Social and economic impacts of climate

Social and economic impacts of climate

The Enduring Impact of the American Dust Bowl: Short- and Long-Run Adjustments to Environmental Catastrophe

Farm Subsidies and Technical Change: State-Mediated Accumulation in U.S. Agriculture

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About